Athma Jeyam (Inner Victory)

(Poem of Bharathiar on ஆத்ம ஜெயம் (Inner Victory) )

கண்ணில் தெரியும் பொருளினைக் கைகள்
கவர்ந்திட மாட்டாவோ? - அட
மண்ணில் தெரியுது வானம், அதுநம்
வசப்பட லாகாதோ?
எண்ணி யெண்ணிப்பல நாளு முயன்றிங்
கிறுதியிற் சோர்வோமோ? - அட
விண்ணிலும் மண்ணிலும் கண்ணிலும் எண்ணிலும்
மேவு பராசக்தியே!

என்ன வரங்கள், பெருமைகள், வெற்றிகள்,
எத்தனை மேன்மைகளோ!
தன்னை வென்றாலவை யாவும் பெறுவது
சத்திய மாகுமென்றே
முன்னை முனிவர் உரைத்த மறைப் பொருள்
முற்றுமுணர்ந்த பின்னும்
தன்னை வென்றாளும் திறமை பெறாதிங்கு
தாழ்வுற்று நிற்போமோ?

With Great Power.......

"With great power comes great responsibility" -- Anyone who has seen the Spiderman - 1 would be able to instantly recognize these wordings. This is also a statement that I have frequently discussed with my friend during our days in Hyderabad. Why did I think of writing about this statement all of a sudden? A couple of paragraphs from the book "The Jurrasic Park" has made me look at this statement in a totally different light. I have reproduced the two paragraphs from the book as such so that I don't dilute the meaning and the impact.

"Most kinds of power require a substantial sacrifice by whoever wants the power. There is an apprenticeship, a discipline lasting many years. Whatever kind of power you want. President of the company. Black belt in Karate. Spiritual Guru. Whatever it is you seek, you have to put in the time, the practice, the effort. You must give up a lot to get it. It has to be very important to you. And once you have attained it, it is your power. It can't be given away: it resides in you. It is literally the result of your discipline.

Now, what is interesting about this process is that, by the time someone has acquired the ability to kill with his bare hands, he has also matured to the point where he won't use it unwisely. So that kind of power has a built-in control. The discipline of getting the power changes you so that you won't abuse it."

Eleven Minutes -- Book Review

I am a big fan of the book "The Alchemist" by Paulo Coelho. I have also read "The Zahir" and it is also a great piece of work by Coelho. What is so impressive about Coelho's writing is his ability to reach to your heart through his impressive story and characterization. Be it Santiago (The Alchemist) or Esther (The Zahir), the characters in Coelho's work are people you can meet in your day to day life. This is one of the highlights of his narrating capabilities which make these characters very enduring to most of the readers.

The "Eleven Minutes" deviates from this theme as the story is about a prostitute who tries to find the meaning of her life and about herself through her journey. Maria is a girl from Brazil, who like everyone else, dreams about happy things happening to her. Life, as is the norm, does not play out the way we expect it to and this forces Maria to leave her country and head for Geneva. She 'allows' fate to take control of her life and soon she finds herself selling her body to earn her living. She also gets a chance to experience dark pleasures obtained through pain and suffering and when she gets to close to becoming a prey for the dark pleasures, she is rescued from that by Ralf Hart a handsome young painter. She discovers that sex becomes sacred when combined with love in the company of Hart. Whether she has the courage to 'live' her dream or whether she decides to run away from it when it comes knocking forms the rest of the plot.

This book might appear to have a negative tone and some might consider it depressing as well. The introduction of sadism and the vivid description does leave a bad but necessary impact on the mind. Thankfully, these are minor irritants for an otherwise impeccable book. The way the various incidents are narrated by Maria and their emotional significance by her loud thinking soul is a beauty in itself. The best part in the book nevertheless goes to Maria's diary entry at the end of each chapter. Insightful, deeply thought entries in her diary vividly describe the emotions that are going through Maria's mind at every stage in her life. The positive minded character of Ralf Hart and his interaction with Maria forms one of the most refreshing portions of the book. I have reproduced verbatim a paragraph from Maria's diary entry that describes about love.

"All my life, I thought of love as some kind of voluntary enslavement. Well, that's a lie: freedom only exists when love is present. The person who gives him or herself wholly, the person who feels freest, is the person who loves most wholeheartedly.

And the person who loves wholeheartedly feels free."

Bottom Line: The story being about a prostitute and the sexual references notwithstanding, this is a fabulous book about pursuing and living our dreams. The insightful description of the ways of the soul and the pursuance of a dream leaves the reader's with a lot of items to contemplate about the way they lead their life. The decision that I have made after reading this book is to get all the books of Paulo Coelho for my library. The minimum that a reader of this review can do is to grab a copy of this book and I can assure you that the book will leave you spellbound.

Kizhinchalgal

இறைவன்

இன்று இறைவன் தரிசனம்.
கடலிலும், நதியுலும், தோப்பிலும்
அழகிய அவன் உருவம்.




வேண்டுதல்

பல போர்கள் என்றாய்.
காரணம் மதங்கள் என்றாய்;
மதங்கள் என்ன செய்தன இவற்றில்?
மதத்தின் பெயரால் மனிதர்களின் மனங்களை
பதம் பார்க்கும் சில மிருகங்களின்
விபரீத விளையாட்டில் வந்தவை இவ்வேதனைகள்.
இறைவா -- கல்லாய் இருந்தது போதும்.
எழுந்து வா.
இம்மிருகங்கள் வதை.
அனைத்து பேதங்கள் புதை.
அமைதி வளர வழி செய்.

Punjabi Dhaba @ Mount Road -- Restaurant Review

I decided to create and dedicate a section of my blog to cater to the needs of those gourmets like me who would like to know about the best places to eat in Chennai. It also aids me by providing an excuse for the various restaurant visits that I can undertake under the name of doing a review of the food available there!!! Me and my friend Srikanth (The culinary expert!) finalized on seven ingredients under which a restaurant can be reviewed. Please feel free to post a comment about any other ingredients that needs to be added to make this a perfect concoction.

Restaurant Name: Vellore's Gyan Vaishnav Punjabi Dhaba

Ingredient #1: Location: Located at Mount Road just near the 'Raj Video Vision', this restaurant is right at the heart of the city. If you are familiar with Chennai & its traffic, this place is easily locatable. Even if you are new to Chennai, the chances of finding this restaurant is high as you can always ask for 'Raj Video Vision' and then go to this Dhaba.

Ingredient #2: Parking Space: One of the problems that most of the restaurants in Chennai have is the amount of parking space that is provided for the food lovers. Thankfully, this Dhaba has enough parking space for atleast 5 to 6 cars and around 10 to 12 bikes. Considering that the Dhaba is a small place, this is actually ample space for the food lovers to park their vehicles.

Ingredient #3: Ambience: This is a very small eating place with probably a seating capacity not exceeding 30 people at a time. (Assuming 3 persons per side of the long table) This is purely a place to relish and enjoy your food. If you are looking for a professional place to have a business discussion or a cozy place to take your wife/girl friend or a comfortable place for a nice discussion about the events of the day with your buddies, this dhaba might not be the ideal place and you might want to look elsewhere.

Ingredient #4: Choices Available: This is a purely vegetarian dhaba and there is not even the sniff of egg available here. The variety that is available in terms of North Indian dishes is simply mindboggling. The Naans, Rotis, Parathaas come in different flavors and the choices available in terms of the side dishes is also excellent. There is also the Jain cooking available for those people who would like to have their food items prepared without garlic.

Ingredient #5: Service: The service was very fast and the waiters treated the food lovers well. One of the best things about this dhaba is the speed with which the orders were processed. I would assume that most of the side dishes have already been cooked and kept ready in the kitchen. Hence, the processing of an order amounted to preparing the Roti/Naan/Parathas that were requested.

Ingredient #6: Taste/Quality: The items were well cooked and the quality was also decent. The spice levels of the side dishes were perfect. The dessert that I had (Badam Kheer) was delicious and had the correct amount of sugar.

Ingredient #7: Pricing: Like most of the other dhaba's, this is one place where the food is cheap. Three of us visited this place and we ended up paying around Rs.450 in total (Including the tips). Considering the fact that I was real hungry on that day and ate a lot, this is really really cheap by any standards!!!

Topping: This place is something that you can visit if you are hungry and interested in eating some authentic North Indian dishes that are good and cheap.

Jurassic Park -- Book Review

Author: Michael Crichton
Year of Publication: 1990

What does it take to write a great science fiction novel that is an absolute page turner? A fertile imagination, in-depth research of the topic and a riveting plot. The pitfalls are that with a bit of 'Too Fertile' imagination of the scientific possibilities of the near future and a shoddy research work could easily allow the plot to lose its credibility and eventually the reader's interest. Thankfully, Michael Crichton produces the right concoction of these ingredients to come up with an absolutely fabulous book on the ever mysterious and ever entertaining topic of dinosaurs.

When John Hammond, a maverick businessman, decides to create a theme park with dinosaurs brought back to life using genetic engineering, he has no qualms about the possible complications and issues that would arise because of such a venture. He goes ahead with the project in spite of the objections raised by Ian Malcolm, a mathematician from University of Texas, who has been hired as a consultant for the project. When Hammond and his team of scientists successfully start 'Producing' dinosaurs, something goes terribly wrong in their scheme of things. What happens to Jurassic Park (The name of the theme park), the animals and the people in that theme park form the rest of the plot.

The characterization of Ian Malcolm is probably the highlight of this book. Ian Malcolm's nonchalant & sometimes arrogant ways, his explanation of the chaos theory, the butterfly and various other scientific phenomenons is something that leaves a lasting impression on the minds of the reader. He is one of those fictional characters that I would love and idolize my whole life. The 'Jurassic Park' brings to the fore some of the questions we humans have been grappling with for some time now. Is genetic engineering a boon or a bane? Do we have enough knowledge to 'Create' life? The 'Power' to control life forms we create? Do we have the 'Might' to completely destroy this planet to leave it without a trace of life? Crichton answers many of these questions and leaves some open for the readers to ponder.

Bottom Line: There is no doubt that the movie adaptation was GREAT but it is simply nothing when compared to the book. If you are an avid science fiction fan, this is one book that you must NOT miss. Grab a copy now and I am sure you will not keep it down till you are done with the book. (By the way, I am a huge fan of this book and this is JUST the fourth time I have completed the book!)

The 'Inimitable' Kamal Haasan!!!!

During one of those 'Search for God knows what', I came across three stills of Kamal and couldn't resist myself from posting on it. I believe all 3 of these are a bit of old stuff but I guess Kamal's makeup is something that I never get tired of and so decided to post it here.

(Still from the discontinued movie 'Marudhanayagam')

It seems a French guy who had some interactions with Kamal during the shooting of the movie 'Marudhanayagam' sent across these stills to one of his Indian friends and that is how it ended up in the net. It seems the 15 mins of movie that was made is terrific.......... How sad that the movie got canceled.

(One another still from 'Marudhanayagam')

The still below is rumored to be from the movie 'Dasavathaaram'. It seems Kamal will be donning 10 roles in this movie and a competition might be announced for fans to identify the 10 different roles of Kamal in the movie. It is a movie that I have high expectations as the director Ravikumar has generally brought the best in Kamal (And yeah....... There was a particular scene in this movie that was shot in Olympia Tech Park, the place where I work. Kamal was looking so young and smart!!!)

(Still from the movie 'Dasavathaaram')

Uthiri Pookal -- Movie Review

Uthiri Pookal is one movie that gets quoted so often when popular directors talk about the best tamil movie ever made. It piqued my curiosity and after a long search, I was finally able to get hold of a copy(Moserbaer is selling original VCD's for Rs.28 these days!!!) I guess it is not an exaggeration to say that this movie deserves all the credit that has come its way.

It is always a tricky proposition to come up with a negative character as the hero of a movie. It is as risky as walking on thin ice. One wrong move and you are destined for a nasty fall. Mahendran does this balancing act with so much elan that it leaves you spellbound to the script. The fact that Vijayan is not portrayed as the stereotypical villain adds to the authenticity of his character. What transpires on screen is a battle between a person who is sensitive enough to deeply love his kids and a person who can ruthlessly do anything to attain the things he has set his eyes on.

The effort that has gone into etching each of the character of the movie pays rich dividend as it adds a lot of value to the storyline. The screenplay is something that many of the present day directors can use as an example while writing their scripts. With a solid storyline, the onus was on the screenplay to make the movie interesting. The scenes are neatly placed that one scene gels into the next one very smoothly and without any hiccups. The tight closeup shots of the lead characters during the highly charged scenes shows the faith the director had in his actors and the actors have repaid the faith with some brilliant performances.

The scenes where Vijayan slaps Aswini or Sarathbabu are not shown directly but are shown in a subtle and beautiful way. The sound followed by the heroine holding her hands to her face or Sarathbabu washing away the blood in the river are artistic and shows the director's ability to think beyond the ordinary. One another unsung hero of this movie is Illayaraaja. For each character, he comes up with a brilliant theme music. Be it the ominous sounding tabla for Vijayan or the soft & sad music for Aswini or the funky bits for the second heroine, Illayaraaja proves his mettle in the BGM department.

This is a movie about human relations, love and the fall from grace of a person possessed by greed. A movie that should be watched for the sheer narrative style and honest story telling. A classic indeed!

Rating: 9/10